In one of the most unusual actions of the war, two air bases inside Russia were attacked by drones on Saturday the 19th and Monday the 21st, resulting in at least one Tupolev Tu-22M3 strategic bomber being destroyed or damaged in the first attack, at Soltsy airfield (Novgorod Oblast, south of Saint Petersburg). Images on social networks whose authenticity has not been confirmed showed a plane engulfed in flames. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the facts – although it apparently minimized the damage – but did not report the second attack, against the Chaikovka base (Kaluga Oblast, south-west of Moscow).
It’s not the first time something like this has happened. On December 5, 2022, the Engels-2 base, near Saratov (700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border) and the Diagilevo base, southeast of Moscow, were attacked by drones. In the latter, a Tu-22 ended up with shattered wings and three soldiers inside a truck died. Inheritance of the Soviet design of the sixties, but renewed, the Tu-22 M3 is a long-range supersonic twin engine capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Russia has 60 devices, according to Ukrainian expert Mikhaïl Jirozhov.
Neither in that case nor in this one did Kyiv recognize the action. The novelty, this time, is that Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) claimed responsibility for the attacks, claiming that it had coordinated “sabotage groups” within Russia. The result would have been one bomber destroyed at Soltsi and two damaged, as well as two more hit at Chaikovka.
The Russian Ministry of Defense pointed out that these were drones of the quadricopter type. This gave rise to the British Ministry of Defense to point out in its daily report that “if this is true, it adds weight to the assessment that some drone attacks (…) are launched from Russian territory”, since this type of four-propeller devices – even if there are large ones – do not have enough autonomy to reach the Soltsi base from outside Russia. The Moscow Times portal added to this version, recalling that “the question of sabotage had been discussed in Vladimir Putin’s meetings with the security forces. They swore that this would not happen again, but no one could give a hundred percent guarantee.”
Meanwhile, the man who can least guarantee anything in Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, made headlines again yesterday following the crisis in Niger. Loaded with military impedimenta in a desert landscape that could be the Sahel and claiming it was 50 degrees, the head of the Wagner Group said he was recruiting men and “making Russia even bigger on every continent, and Africa, more free”.
General Sergei Surovikin, a friend of Prigozhin, who fell into disgrace and was removed from circulation for his failed military coup attempt, has been formally dismissed as head of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Aleksei Venediktov, former director of the Echo radio station, reported yesterday of Moscow, now closed. It remains to be seen if the fate of the Tu-22s, attacked in their own bases, had something to do with it.
